Gregor Mendel

FATHER GREGOR (YOHANN) MENDEL 1822 July 22, Monday: The British Parliament enacted one of the 1st animal rights laws, the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act intended to protect farm animals. After three months devoted to his music, Gioachino Rossini departed from Vienna because Prince Metternich, a great admirer, has engaged him as the “official composer” for the Verona Conference (coming up in November). In Heinzendorf in what was then Lower Silesia, Johann Mendel was born. His father Anton Mendel (1789- 1857) was a peasant veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. His mother Rosine née Schwirtlich (1794-1862) had already given birth to three daughters, two of whom had died. The surviving daughter, Veronica, was two years old. GREGOR MENDEL The botanist Stephen Elliott wrote to his nephew William Elliott about the recent conspiracy by a Charleston Bible teacher, Denmark “No one thought to describe his face” Vesey, to free the slaves of South Carolina. SERVILE INSURRECTION The Boston house known as the Beehive was a 2-story dwelling with a sharp roof, with its end toward the street. This house was called the Beehive house because it had many little windows, making it look from the HDT WHAT? INDEX FATHER GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL outside very like a honeycomb. The lady of the house was a Mrs. Cooper, who had two daughters and many female boarders. On this evening at about 9PM a crowd of about 200 men, attired in various outlandish costumes and with well-blackened faces, carrying various work implements, suddenly came around the corner accompanied by a band. It took them approximately ten minutes to virtually rip this house to shreds. The first thing they did was turn all the featherbeds inside out from the windows so that the neighborhood took on the resemblance of winter. They then proceeded with a will to utterly demolish the furniture, the walls, the roof, the frame, everything about the house, their intent being not to leave any two sticks fastened together or any stick larger than a door hingepin. As they departed they set a fire in some brimstone, feathers, and wool rags — so that the house lot not only seemed like a trash heap, and looked like winter, but smelled like Hell itself. (So, where were the Boston authorities? Elsewhere.) 1824 Franz Cyril Napp (1792-1867) was elected abbot of the Augustinian monastery in Brno (the monastery Gregor Mendel would enter in 1843). Napp had a strong interest in agriculture and would eventually be named president of the Moravian Agricultural Society. 1833 At this point 11 years of age, Johann Mendel was enrolled in the Piarist secondary school in Leipnik, a neighboring village of Heinzendorf. Here, as in primary school, he would exhibit great academic ability. GREGOR MENDEL 1834 Having demonstrated much academic promise, Johann Mendel was admitted to the Gymnasium in Troppau, Silesia (now the Czech Republic town of Opava, home to Silesian University). The fees at Troppau being difficult for the Mendels to afford, Johann was enrolled as on “half rations.” GREGOR MENDEL 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHANN MENDEL FATHER GREGOR 1836 Franz Diebl (1770-1859) put out a two-volume textbook, ABHANDLUNGEN AUS DER LANDWIRTSCHAFTSKUNDE FÜR LANDWIRTHE, BESONDERS ABER FÜR DIEJENIGEN, WELCHE SICH DER ERLERNUNG DIESER WISSENSCHAFT WIDMEN. II. VON DEM PFLANZENBAU, in which he alleged that the primary method for the improvement of plants was artificial pollination. Gregor Mendel would in 1846 attend Diebl’s lectures on pomiculture and viticulture at the Philosophical Institute in Brno. BOTANIZING 1838 The father of the Mendel family, Anton, was seriously injured, so much so as to have to give up farming. Johann Mendel decided against returning home to take over the farm, which would therefore pass to his sister Veronica’s husband, Alois Sturm. It becoming necessary for Johann to support himself and his studies, he would do so by tutoring privately. GREGOR MENDEL 1839 Shortly after Pentecost, Johann Mendel became seriously ill and left school to recover at home. He would not return to Troppau until September. Despite this absence, in the following year he would be admitted to the highest class in the school. GREGOR MENDEL 1840 Johann Mendel went to the University of Olmütz (now Olomouc in the Czech Republic) to study philosophy, hoping to support himself by tutoring. He wasn’t able to find work as a tutor, and once again fell ill. He returned home for the remainder of the year. GREGOR MENDEL “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX FATHER GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL 1841 In central Europe, Johann Mendel’s sister Theresia relinquished part of her dowry so that Johann might continue his studies at Olmütz. He returned to the City, where he was this time able to find work as a tutor. He would study philosophy at the Philosophical Institute for the following two years. GREGOR MENDEL 1843 Johann Mendel’s financial circumstances remained a serious problem, and he discussed his desire to continue his studies with the Professor of Physics at the University of Olmütz, Friedrich Franz. Franz recommended that Mendel enter the Augustinian monastery in Brünn (Brno). Franz, who had lived at the monastery at one time, would write a letter in support of Mendel’s candidacy, and Mendel would be accepted in late September. On October 9, he would enter the monastery as a novice and take the name “Gregor.” GREGOR MENDEL 1845 Gregor Mendel began his studies at the Brünn Theological College. In this first year he would study Hebrew, ecclesiastical history, and ecclesiastical archaeology; in the following year he would be studying Greek, exegesis, and ecclesiastical law. 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHANN MENDEL FATHER GREGOR 1846 In addition to his studies at the Theological College, with the approval and encouragement of the abbot of the monastery at Brünn, Franz Cyrill Napp (1792-1867), Gregor Mendel attended lectures on fruit-growing and viticulture. Napp, who had written a manual on plant breeding, was also chairman of the Pomological Association, and served on the committee of the local Agricultural Society. The lectures were delivered at the Brünn Philosophical Institute by Professor Franz Diebl (1770-1859), who was well-known for his articles and books about plant breeding. From this year until 1864, the 5 volumes of Professor Sir William Jackson Hooker’s SPECIES FILICUM (THE SPECIES OF FERNS). Some of the conservationist insights which would be presented in the following year by George Perkins Marsh before the Agricultural Society of Rutland County, Vermont were elaborated in George B. Emerson’s A REPORT ON THE TREES AND SHRUBS GROWING NATURALLY IN THE FORESTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. PUBLISHED AGREEABLY TO AN ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE, BY THE COMMISSIONERS ON THE ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE STATE was published in Boston “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX FATHER GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (Dutton and Wentworth, State Printers, No. 37, Congress Street) with illustrations by Isaac Sprague. EMERSON’S TREES/SHRUBS A copy of this would be in Henry Thoreau’s personal library and a snippet from page 511 about the “flexibility, lightness, and resiliency” of the wood of the Tilia Americana, also called the basswood, or lime, or linden tree, would find its way into A WEEK. 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHANN MENDEL FATHER GREGOR “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX FATHER GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL A WEEK: (September 2, Monday, 1839) The bass, Tilia Americana, also called the lime or linden, which was a new tree to us, overhung the water with its broad and rounded leaf, interspersed with clusters of small hard berries now nearly ripe, and made an agreeable shade for us sailors. The inner bark of this genus is the bast, the material of the fisherman’s matting, and the ropes and peasant’s shoes of which the Russians make so much use, and also of nets and a coarse cloth in some places. According to poets, this was once Philyra, one of the Oceanides. The ancients are said to have used its bark for the roofs of cottages, for baskets, and for a kind of paper called Philyra. They also made bucklers of its wood, “on account of its flexibility, lightness, and resiliency.” It was once much used for carving, and is still in demand for sounding-boards of piano-fortes and panels of carriages, and for various uses for which toughness and flexibility are required. Baskets and cradles are made of the twigs. Its sap affords sugar, and the honey made from its flowers is said to be preferred to any other. Its leaves are in some countries given to cattle, a kind of chocolate has been made of its fruit, a medicine has been prepared from an infusion of its flowers, and finally, the charcoal made of its wood is greatly valued for gunpowder. CHOCOLATE 1847 August 4, day: Gregor Mendel was ordained a priest. He was 25 years old. He would continue his studies at the Theological College, and attend lectures at the Philosophical Institute. 8 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHANN MENDEL FATHER GREGOR 1848 Nicholas Marcellus Hentz relocated from Tuskeegee, Alabama to Columbus, Georgia. Gregor Mendel, in his 4th year of studies at the Theological College, attended additional lectures on agriculture at the Brünn Philosophical Institute. The teacher was Professor Franz Diebl (1770-1859). In June, Mendel received a certificate of completion from the College, and in early August he became a parish priest in the collegiate church at Altbrünn. The Boston Society of Natural History, which had been organized in 1830 out of what remained of the Linnaean Society that had flourished from 1813 to 1823, moved into its new quarters on Mason Street in the building known as the Massachusetts Medical College.

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